Pedestal type desk and drawer suspension therefor



Oct. 15, 1968 c. A. EVERSMAN 3,405,938

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PEDESTAL TYPE DESK AND DRAWER SUSPENSION THEREFOR Filed Feb. 2, 1967 5Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR 042d A. EVEPSMAM ATTORNEYS United States Patent3,405,988 PEDESTAL TYPE DESK AND DRAWER SUSPENSION THEREFOR Carl A.Eversman, Toledo, Ohio, assignor to Sheller- Globe Corporation, Toledo,Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Feb. 2, 1967, Ser. No. 613,493 Claims.(Cl. 312-254) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A pedestal type desk comprisingbasic standard pedestal weldments, and basic standard drawer weldments,and a plurality of alternative trim members and leg members readilyattachable without tools whereby to produce desks of several differentstyles from said basic weldment; and a plurality of alternative drawersuspension elements readily attachable to the pedestals and-drawers toprovide several different drawer suspension modes, one of said modespermitting a drawer to be fully withdrawn from the pedestal; and a falsefront and finish front construction of drawers whereby the finish frontmay be applied by sliding onto the false front vertically orhorizontally in either direction so that if a finish front must bereversed when changing a drawer from one pedestal to the other, thefinish front can be reversed without special tools; whereby completeinterchangeability of drawers is provided for.

Cross reference to related applications There are no relatedapplications presently pending. Background of the invention Field of theinventi0n.The invention pertains to the art of metal desk constructionand mounting of drawers in pedestal type desks.

Description of the prior art-Metal desks for office and the like usehave heretofore been made in a variety of designs. For each design aspecial pedestal weldment was required and the design of the desk couldnot be changed without a complete rebuilding of the desk.

A great many drawer suspensions have been designed and built, thesedrawer suspensions have various degrees of complexity and various costs.Heretofore it has not been possible to modify the suspension of thedrawers wherein at least three different suspensions may be applied to astandard drawer weldment without requiring the use of special tools.

Heretofore all suspensions for drawers and pedestal type desks have beensuch that the drawer could not be fully Withdrawn from the pedestal sothat its rear wall was at least flush with the front of the pedestal.One of the suspension modes hereafter described permits the drawer to befully withdrawn.

Summary The invention provides a standard pedestal weldment and aplurality of trim elements and leg elements of different designs. Thetrim elements and leg elements are secured to the pedestals by a studand keyhole slot arrangement whereby a pedestal may be provided withlegs at its four corners, said legs having one of several designs, andwhereby legs may be provided at the outside corners only or the insidecorners only of the pedestal and the remaining corners may be providedwith matching trim strips, whereby several different styles of desks maybe made up from a standard basic pedestal weldment simply by theapplication of various trim elements and leg elements.

A standard drawer weldment is provided and the pedestals are providedwith standard case elements for the drawers. By simple modifications notrequiring the use of special tools, the drawers and the case elementsmay be modified to provide several different modes of suspension over arange of costs and a corresponding range of qualities.

One suspension mode made possible by the invention enables a drawer tobe completely withdrawn from the pedestal so that its rear wall is atleast flush with the front of the pedestal.

The standard drawer weldment is provided with a false front to which afinish front is applied by sliding on vertically either from above orfrom below or horizontally from the right side or from the left side,whereby a drawer having no pull on its finish front but having a lateraloverhang in the kneehole space of the desk for use as a pull, is to bechanged from one pedestal to another, the finish front may be removedand rotated and replaced.

By a combination of the foregoing features, complete interchangeabilityof drawers within the pedestals of a desk and between pedestals of adesk and from one desk to another is achieved.

Brief description of the drawings FIG. 1 is a perspective view of astandard pedestal weldment.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a typical leg member.

FIG. 3 is a front elevational view of the pedestal weldment of FIG. 1 onan enlarged scale.

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of FIG. 2 on anenlarged scale.

FIG. 5 is a cross sectional view of a trim strip taken in a positioncorresponding to the line 4-4 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a cross sectional view similar to FIG. 5 of another form oftrim element. I

FIG. 7 is a cross sectional view similar to FIGS. 5 and 6 showing yetanother type of trim element.

FIG. 8 is a cross sectional view of the pedestal weldment taken on theline 8-8 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary perspective view of the upper portion of thepedestal showing atop finish strip.

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary cross sectional view on an enlarged scale takenon the line 10-10 of FIG. 9.

FIG. 11 is a side elevational view with parts broken away of a standarddrawer weldment.

FIG. 12 is a rear elevational view of the same.

FIG. 13 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the rear end of adrawer with an outrigger element attached for use in one mode ofsuspension.

FIG. 14 is a fragmentary side elevational view showing a first modesuspension using the outrigger element of FIG. 13.

FIG. 15 is an enlarged fragmentary cross sectional view taken on theline 1515 of FIG. 15.

FIG. 16 is a fragmentary side elevational view of a standard drawerweldment with runners attached thereto for use in a second modesuspension.

FIG. 17 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the drawer of FIG. 16showing the cooperation thereof with the case elements in the secondsuspension mode.

FIG. 18 is a fragmentary cross sectional view on an enlarged scale takenon the line 18-18 of FIG. 17.

FIG. 19 is a side elevational view of a cradle element for use in athird suspension mode.

FIG. 20 is a fragmentary front elevational view with parts in crosssection showing the cooperation between the cradle and a drawer seatedtherein.

FIG. 21 is a fragmentary plan view of the cradle element.

FIG. 22 is a side elevational view with parts in section and partsbroken away showing the cooperation between the drawer, cradle and thecase element in the third suspension mode.

FIG. 23 is an enlarged fragmentary cross sectional view taken on theline 2323 of FIG. 22.

box drawer with parts in section showing how a finish front is securedto the false front.

FIG. 25 is a fragmentary top plan view of the front end of a drawershowing another mode of applying a finish front to the false front wherethe false front is provided witha lateral overhang type of a'pull.

FIG. "26 is a fragmentary side "elevational view of a file drawer withparts in section showing the attachment of a finish front.

1 FIG. 27 is a fragmentary top plan view of the structure of FIG. 26'.

FIG. 28 is a fragmentary cross sectional view on an enlarged scale takenon the line 28 -28 of FIG. 26. I FIG. 29 is a fragmentary crosssectional view on an en larg'ed scale taken on the line 29--29 of FIG.24.

Description of lhe prefe rred embodiments In FIG. 1 there is shown astandard pedestal weldment having side'walls'ltl and 11 and bottom wall-12. At the top of the pedestal weldment are the cross pieces 13 arid 14which are provided with members 15 for the attachment of the desk top.The attachment of the desk top to the pedestals does'not constitute apart of this invention and will therefore not be described in detail.

The walls 10 and 11 are provided with the inwardly directed flanges 10aand 11a and the forwardly extending flanges 10b and 11b. Similar flangesare provided at the rear. The case elements 16 are secured by spotwelding or in other suitable manner between the front and rear flanges10b and 11b, respectively. The cross member 13 is provided with thedownwardly turned flange 13a and the forwardly extending flange 13b, andsimilarly the bottom element 12 is provided with down-turned flange 12aand the forwardly extending flange 12b.

The flanges 10a. and 11a at the front and rear of the pedestal weldmentare provided with the keyhole slots 17 and it is by means of thesekeyhole slots that alternately leg members or trim members are attachedto the pedestal weldmentj A typical leg member is indicated at 18 inFIG. 2 and it is provided with the headed studs 19. A leg member isattached to the pedestal weldment by inserting the headed studs 19 tothe enlarged portions of the keyhole slots 17 and then sliding the legmember upwardly or pushing the pedestal downwardly with respect to theleg member, It will be understood that the dimensions of the leg member18 are such that the two exposed surfaces of the leg member will beflush with the side wall 10 or 11. In this way leg members may beprovided at each of the four corners of the pedestal.

In some cases it may be desirable that the pedestal have only outboardleg members or only inboard leg members. In such case, a trim member isapplied instead of a leg member. A trim member which would be used withthe leg member 18 is shown in FIG. 7. It will be observed that the trimmember, which is indicated at 20, is of much lighter gauge material thanthe leg member since it need not carry the weight of the desk. It isagain provided with the headed stud 19 and attached to the pedestalweldment in the same way as a leg member. Thus, by way. of example, legmembers 18 may be attached to the flanges 11a at the front andr'ear andtrim members 20 may be attached to the flanges 10a, front and rear, inwhich case the pedestal will have only outboard legs. Conversely, theleg members may be attached to the flanges 10a front and rear, and thetrim members attached to the flanges "11a front and rear, in which casethe pedestal will have only inboard legs. (In this description it hasbeen assumed that the pedestal of FIG. 1 andFIG. 3 is the leftpedestal.)

It is, of course, also possible to omit the leg elements 18 entirely anduse the trim elements 20 at all four corners of the pedestal and to useone or more central leg members attached to the underside of thepedestal weldment in any conventional manner.

FIGSLS and 6 "show trim elements 20a and 20bf'ea'ch having the sameheaded studs 19 for attachment but having a different cross sectionalconfiguration. The trim element of FIG. 5 gives a beveled appearance andthat of FIG. 6. gives z.a quarter, round appearance. ;It will beunderstood that corresponding leg members are provided of a heaviergauge material such as shown in FIGi 4=but having the configurations ofFIGS. 5 and 6 respectively.

From the foregoing description, it will be seen that basically anyone ofthree'types of legend trim may be provided and that with any particulartype of trim the number and location of the legsused may be varied. All

i of this is.accomplis hed with a standard pedestal weldment and thechanges are made without the use of special tools. Thus, if it isdesired to change the style of the'desk, this can be done by simplypurchasing the required number of leg members and trim members of adifferent style. I

In FIGS. 9 and 10, atop filler or trim strip is shown and isindicated'at 21. This is simply attached to the flange13b by means ofsheet metal screws 22. Ab'ottomfilleror trim strip identical'to the topstrip 21'is attached to the flange 12b of the bottom member.

In FIG. 8 the case elements heretofore referred to are shown at 16. Asbest seen in FIG. 1, each case element has an upper flange 16a and alower flange" 16b. Each flange is provided with a slot 22 formed bypunching out a lip23 at its front end and each case element is providedwith a stud 24 upon which a roller may be mounted as hereinafterdescribed. As will be described in more detail hereinafter, a nylonglide may be snapped into the opening 22 and supported on the lip 23 andthe flange 16b for use with a first suspension mode, there being noroller on the stud 24. In a second and third suspension mode, thenylonglide is not used and a roller is mounted on the stud 24. V

. A basic drawer weldment is shown in FIGS. 11 and 12. The drawerweldment is generally conventional in structure and is provided with afalse front 25. At the'top and bottom-and on each side forwardly slopingflanges are provided. The top and bottom flanges are indicated at 26 and27 and the lateral flanges at 28 and 29. A pair of retainers '30 arespot welded to the rear wall 31 of the drawer and these are providedwith fingers 30a, the pur 'poseof which will be described hereinafter.The basic drawer weldment shown in FIGS. 11 and 12 is'used regardless ofthe suspension mode which is adopted. For afirst suspension mode anoutrigger 32 is appliedto the drawer as shown in 'FIG." 13. Theoutrigger is provided with the bottomflange 32a and the lateral flange32b" for location with respect to the drawer and the outrigger is heldin place by the single screw 33. The outrigger carries a roller 34. I I

.When the drawer is equipped with an outrigger 32 at the rear thereon oneach side, and a nylon glide '35 (FIG;

15) is snapped'into place in the aperture 22 and resting" on the lip 23,a first suspension mode is provided. In

\ L FIG. 15 the drawer side isindicated at 36 and the drawer bottom at37. By a study of FIGS. 14 and 15, it will be apparent that the seatportion 35a of the nylonglide 35 supports the bottom of the drawer sothat the drawer rnay slide thereon and that the roller 34 rides ontheunderside of the flange 16a of the case member 16. The suspensionmode'thus far described isa very inexpensive yet adequate suspension foran inexpensive desk, particularly where'the contents of the drawer willnot be heavy. p

A'seco'nd suspension mode is illustrated'in FIGS. 16,

. 17 and 18. It will be observed that the drawer of FIG.

16 has 'a roller 34a corre'sponding to the roller 34 which was mountedon the'ou'trigger 32, but here the roller 34 is mounted on ar unner 38.The outrigger is removed. and the runner 38 applied instead. Therunneris generally Z-shaped incross section as best seen in FIG. 18 and isprovided with a tongue 38a at its frontend which engages in a slot inthe false front and the runner is held in place by the single screw 39.The drawer has thus been mo dified by substituting the runner 38carrying the rollers 34a for the Outriggers 32 carrying the roller 34.Additionally, the nylon glides 35 are not used and instead a roller 40is mounted on the stud 24. In the representation of FIG. 18, the roller40 is a roller bearing type of roller slipped over the stud 24 and heldin place by a pressed headed nylon stud 41. Thus, in the secondsuspension mode the drawer is supported at the front of the pedestal bythe flange 38b of the runner riding on the roller 40 and at its rearheld by the roller 34a riding on the underside of the flange 16a of thecase element. The operation of this suspension will be clear from acomparison of FIGS. 17 and 18. In this suspension mode, the entiresuspension operates on rollers, whereas in the first mode described itrode on one roller and one nylon glide on each side.

In a third suspension mode, the case element portion of the suspensionis the same as in the second mode, i.e., the nylon glide is not used anda roller 40 is mounted on the stud 24. The drawer in the third mode usesneither the outrigger nor the runner. Instead use is made of a cradle asshown in FIGS. 19 and 21. The cradle is indicated generally at 42. Thecradle is basically a rectangular framework having side elements 43 and44 which correspond to the runners 38 described above. They aresubstantially Z-shaped and they carry rollers 34b which correspond tothe rollers 34 and 34a. The cradle 42 cooperates with the case elementsheretofore described in exactly the same mode, so that as seen in FIGS.20 and 22 the upper flanges 43a and 44a ride on the respective rollers24, and the rollers 34b ride against the upper flange 16a. Thus, thecradle member 42 acts like a drawer of a suspension of the second mode.

The drawer itself, indicated at D in FIG. 20, simply seats in the cradleand is guided between the nylon glides 45. The drawer D is shorter thanthe cradle 43 so that when the drawer is pulled out, the drawer andcradle roll as a unit by means of the rollers 24 and 34b until thecradle is stopped by means of its bumper 47, where upon further movementof the drawer is a sliding movement on the glides 45. In this way, therear of the drawer may be pulled out to a position at least flush withthe front face of the pedestal. When the drawer is pushed in, generallythe drawer and cradle will roll until the cradle is all the way in andfurther movement is then accomplished by sliding the drawer along itsglides 45. The drawer is prevented from tipping by means of theretainers 30 wherein the fingers 30a engage over the bottom flanges 43cand 44c of the cradle. From a consideration of FIG. 21, it will beobserved that the flanges 43b and 44b are wider at the rear as at 43cand 440 and that notches 43d and 44d are provided. In inserting a drawerinto a cradle, the rear end of the drawer is inserted and the drawer isthen pushed back so that the fingers 30a engage under the channels 430and 44c. In the event that accidentally the fingers 30a happen to be ontop of the channels 430 and 440, when the drawer is pushed in to thepoint where the fingers 30a reach the slots 43d and 44d, the fingerswill drop through the slots and the drawer will attain its properposition.

As pointed out heretofore, the drawer false front 25 is provided withthe upper and lower flanges 26 and 27 i and the lateral flanges 28 and29 as shown in FIG. 24. For each drawer there is provided a finishfront. The finish front will have the rearwardly sloping flanges onthree sides adapted to mate with the flanges on the false front and onthe fourth side there will be provided an elongated hook element 50. InFIG. 24, there is shown the upper rearwardly sloping flange 51 and oneof the laterally rearwardly sloping flanges 52. As shown in the brokenlines in FIG. 24 the false front is started on from the top with theside flanges 52 and 28 and the corresponding side flanges on the otherside forming .a dovetail. The finish front is slid downwardly until thetop flange 51 abuts the flange 26 with the hook element 50 snapping overthe bottom flange 27 of the false front. This is clearly shown in FIG.24. A drawer pull 55 may then be attached by means of a screw 56 as alsoshown in FIG. 24. FIG. 26 shows a similar arrangement in a file drawerrather than the box drawer of FIG. 24.

In some styles of desks it is desirable to eliminate drawer pulls in theconventional sense. In this case a lateral overhang is provided asindicated at 57 in FIG. 25. In FIG. 25 the pedestal shown would be theright-hand pedestal and a drawer is pulled out by pulling with thefingers on the overhang 57. The overhang 57 is exposed in the kneeholearea of the desk. It will now be understood that if it is desired tointerchange a drawer from a right-hand to a left-hand pedestal, a finishfront 58 as shown in FIG. 25 must be turned so that the'overhang 57 willappear at the right-hand side of the drawer. In this situation,therefore, the finish front 58 is slid into position horizontally ratherthan vertically and again it is slid into position until the hookelement 57a engages over the false front flange 28 or 29 as the case maybe. To change the drawer from the right-hand side to the left-hand side,it is only necessary to unhook the hook member 57a and slide the finishfront 58 off toward the left, turn it 180 and slide it on again from theright until the hook member 57a engages over the flange 29.

From the foregoing description it will be clear that the drawers of adesk according to the present invention are fully interchangeable fromone position to another in the same pedestal or from one pedestal to theother pedestal, or from one desk to another desk of the sameconstruction. It will be clear that numerous modifications may be madewithout departing from the spirit of the invention .and no limitation istherefore intended which is not set forth in the claims which follow.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property orprivilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. In a pedestal type desk, at least one standard pedestal weldment,fastening elements along all vertical corners of said weldment adaptedto receive a variety of corner trim elements and combined trim and legelements, and a plurality of matching corner trim elements and combinedtrim and leg elements, each of said elements having cooperatingfastening elements, whereby the location of the legs and the number ofthe legs and the style of the desk may readily be changed without theuse of special tools.

2. The structure of claim 1, wherein the fastening elements on saidweldment are keyhole slots having the restricted portions thereofupwardly directed, and the fastening elements on said trim elements andcombined trim and leg elements are headed studs having heads of a sizewhich will pass through the large portion but not the restricted portionof said keyhole slots.

3. The structure of claim 1, wherein standard drawer case elements aresuitably secured on opposed sides of the interior of said pedestalweldment, said case elements being generally channel shaped with thearms of said channels inwardly directed, each .of said case elementshaving a stud for the mounting of a drawer supporting roller, and a slotfor the mounting of a drawer supporting nylon glide, whereby severalmodes of drawer suspension may be provided in said standard pedestalweldment with the standard case elements.

4. The structure of claim 3 in combination with nylon glides secured tosaid case elements by snap engagement with said slots.

5. The structure of claim 3 in combination with antifriction rollersrotatably secured on said studs.

6. In a pedestal type desk having a standard pedestal weldment, astandard drawer, a drawer suspension comprising a pair of standard caseelements secured in mutually opposed position on the inside of saidpedestal, each of said case elements being generally channel shaped withthe arms of said channels inwardly directed, each of said case elementshaving, adjacent the front of said pedestal, a stud for the mounting ofa drawer supporting roller, and a slot for the mounting of a drawersupporting nylon glide, roller means associated with each side of saiddrawer at its inner end for engaging said case elements, wherebyselectively several modes of suspension may be provided in said standardpedestal for said standard drawer.

7. The structure of claim 6, wherein a nylon glide is secured to each ofsaid case elements by snap engagement with said slots, and said draweris provided with a roller on each side adjacent its rear end, saidrollers engaging in said case elements; and said nylon glides supportingthe bottom of said drawer.

8. The structure of claim 6, wherein a roller is mounted on each of thestuds of said case elements, and said drawer is provided with a runneron each side adapted to ride on said rollers, and said runner isprovided with a roller on each side adjacent its rear end, said lastmentioned rollers engaging in said case elements.

9. The structure of claim 6. in combination with a cradle, a rollermounted on each of the studs of said case elements, said cradle beingprovided with a runner on each side adapted to ride on said rollers, andsaid cradle being provided with a roller on each side adjacent its rearend, said last mentioned rollers engaging in said case elements, saidcradle having nylon glides for the drawer bottom and sides, and saiddrawer being shorter than said cradle, resting in said cradle andarranged for limited sliding movement fore and aft with respect to saidcradle, whereby when said drawer is pulled out, the drawer and cradlemove as a unit until the limit of withdrawal of 8 said cradle, whereuponsaid drawer may be pulled out in sliding movement in said cradle untilthe rear of said drawer is substantially flush with the front of saidpedestal.

10. The structure of claim 6, wherein said drawer is provided with afalse front having upper, lower and lateral, forwardly sloping flanges,said drawer being provided with a finish front member having along threesides a mating flange engageable with respective sloping flanges of saidfalse front, and along its fourth side having a hook element, wherebysaid finish front may be applied to said false front by engaging theopposed flanges of said finish front adjacent said hook element withopposed flanges of said false front and sliding it into a position inwhich said hook element snaps over the far flange on the said falsefront.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,508,259 9/ 1924 Stafford 312-1,528,724 3/ 1925 Zahner 312-204 X 1,918,780 7/1933 Rand 312-2562,141,954 12/1938 Jones 312-256 2,155,128 4/1939 Gray 312-204 X2,739,028 3/ 1956 Siggia 312-341 2,980,482 4/ 1961 Baio 312-195 XFOREIGN PATENTS 1,193,165 4/1959 France. 1,204,15 7 8/ 1959 France.

JAMES T. MCCALL, Primary Examiner.

